George Condo b. 1957

George Condo studied art and music theory at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell for two years before moving to Boston, where he worked in a silkscreen shop and played for the band The Girls. Condo met Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1979 when The Girls opened for Basquiat's band, Gray, in New York City. Condo quickly moved to New York to pursue his dream of being an artist after this encounter. Basquiat introduced Condo to Keith Haring, with whom he became lifelong friends until Haring's death in 1990. Condo created some of his best work while painting in Haring's studio.

Condo, Basquiat and Haring were vital in reviving painting of the end of the 20^th century. In the early 1980s, Condo worked in Andy Warhol's silkscreening studio and participated in various public exhibitions in New York. He briefly moved to Los Angeles in 1983, where he was given his first solo show. Following his first trip to Europe, Condo moved to Cologne and was given his first solo exhibition in Europe in 1984. From 1985 to 1995, he spent his time traveling between Paris and New York. Condo has termed his work "physiological cubism," and describes his approach as exploiting "imperfections-the private, off-moments or unseen aspects of humanity." His Contemporary Surrealist breakdown of the human form and exaggerated features borders on the line of the Grotesque.

Condo has been commissioned for book covers by various authors, as well as for album covers, T-shirts and purses. Condo's work is featured in the permanent collections of the MoMA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and the Broad Foundation, Los Angeles.

Related Categories: East Village Art, Graffiti/Street Art, Modernizing of Traditional Technique, Contemporary Grotesque, Contemporary Surrealistic, Grotesque, United States, The Fantastic, Painting, Drawing.